U.S. Supreme Court vacates a death sentence because of racial discrimination

On June 21, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Mississippi death-row prisoner Curtis Flowers, because the prosecutor discriminated on the basis of race in the jury selection process.  Writing for the majority Judge Kavanaugh stated:  “Equal justice under law requires a criminal trial free of racial discrimination in the jury selection.”  The prosecutor's “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of black individuals,” he said, “strongly suggests that the State wanted to try Flowers before a jury with as few black jurors as possible, and ideally before an all-white jury.”